First encounter, yet a lifetime unknowingly
Seeing that Tang Feng hadn't spoken for a while, Zhang Mobai waved his hand in front of Tang Feng's face. "Little brother, snap out of it! Are you captivated by the scenery? Are you mesmerized by what's outside?" After saying that, he gently nudged Tang Feng and then pointed ahead. "Little brother, see the little table behind the fence? Get a blessing plaque there, write down your wish, make a sincere wish under the sacred tree, and then hang it up."
Yang Fei raised his hand to lift the burlap sack that was starting to sag, and said, "Bai Bai, there's too much stuff, so I'll go back to the carriage first. Besides, I don't believe in this stuff, so don't let my lack of piety offend the sacred tree and affect you." After Zhang Mobai nodded in agreement, Yang Fei carried the various packages away.
Tang Feng was momentarily stunned, after all, he hadn't seen such a view in over forty years, and was momentarily amazed. Regaining his composure, he followed Zhang Mobai to the fence.
"Little brother, here's your lucky charm. Take it." Zhang Mobai took two wooden plaques and handed one to Tang Feng. "The pen is over there. Just write your wish on it."
Tang Feng took the blessing plaque from Zhang Mobai, casually picked up a pen, and pondered for a long time, holding the pen in his mouth. Actually, Tang Feng had quite a few ideas; he wanted to write down everything about eating, drinking, and having fun. If he could, he could even write hundreds of entries. However, after hearing Zhang Mobai's exaggerated description of the old divine tree, Tang Feng felt that writing only these random things would be a waste of his wish. After much deliberation, Tang Feng wrote the four characters "Anti-Entertainment Successful," then held the blessing plaque upside down in his hand and said to Zhang Mobai, "Little madman, I'm done."
Zhang Mobai tried to peek at what wish Tang Feng had written, but Tang Feng pushed him away, saying, "Go away! Don't peek, or it won't come true." Tang Feng didn't really care about whether other things came true or not, but on this particular matter, he really believed in the divine tree's miraculous power. After all, he had used all his resources to postpone the wedding date, and if he hadn't come up with a good solution when the time came, wouldn't he be repeating the same mistakes, ending the story right from the beginning?
Zhang Mobai rolled his eyes. "Is it really necessary? So stingy. Can't you learn from me and be more generous? Let's see what I wrote." He was about to take out the plaque to show Tang Feng when Tang Feng quickly covered it up, saying, "If you don't look at mine, I won't look at yours either!" Seeing that Zhang Mobai was going to make a fuss about this, Tang Feng quickly pushed Zhang Mobai's back. "You've already finished writing, what are you still talking about! Hurry up and move on, didn't you say that if there are too many people, we'll have to queue?"
"Hey! Don't push me!"
The two walked to the tree, and Tang Feng casually found a branch and hung the "good fortune" plaque there. After hanging it up, he saw Zhang Mobai standing on tiptoe, trying hard to hang the plaque as high as possible, and asked, "Can't you just hang it anywhere? Why are you going to all this trouble to hang it so high?"
After hanging up his plaque, Zhang Mobai patted the dust off his clothes. "You don't know this, do you? Since the Divine Tree is revered as a god, it must be perched atop the clouds, overlooking the earth. The plaque at the very top is bound to be the first one seen. So, the higher you hang it, the sooner your wish will be answered by the god."
Upon hearing this, Tang Feng quickly took down the lucky charm he had already hung up, relieved that he hadn't made a wish yet. He hung the charm on his wrist, tied the hem of his robe around his waist, and said, "Then I'll hang my charm at the very top." With that, Tang Feng hugged the tree trunk and began to climb. Although the sacred tree's trunk was quite thick, its bark was uneven, as if bearing the marks of a thousand years, which, however, made the climb somewhat easier for Tang Feng.
Tang Feng climbed to the top without any trouble, holding the "Good Fortune" plaque in his hand. Just as he was about to hang it up, he suddenly realized that while getting up was easy, what about getting down? He looked down and realized that he had been so focused on climbing that he hadn't noticed how tall the tree was. Now it looked at least four or five stories high. Tang Feng's legs went weak, and he sat down on the trunk, trying to call out to Zhang Mobai, "Little Crazy!"
Zhang Mobai looked up and waved to Tang Feng, thinking that Tang Feng had finished hanging the lucky plaque and was about to come down. But then he heard Tang Feng say, "Little madman, I can't get down! Help me!"
Zhang Mobai was taken aback at first, then asked anxiously, "How can I save you? I... I can't climb trees either!"
"Then go get the ladder!" Tang Feng sighed. Seeing Zhang Mobai agree and turn to get the ladder, he felt relieved. He slowly moved to the tree trunk and sat down. Waves of people came to pray under the sacred tree—some for marriage, some for children, and some for career advancement. The old sacred tree, like a silent old man, quietly listened to the wishes of these common people. Tang Feng took out the yam bean that Yang Fei hadn't taken because it was a gift and ate it. He had originally intended to save it for Liu Yiwan, but then thought better of it.
Perhaps the excitement had subsided, and the area under the sacred tree was quiet for a while. Just when Tang Feng thought the prayer was over, an old woman and a child walked up to the tree. The child watched as the old woman hung up the blessing plaque, then clasped his hands together and made a wish, "Old sacred tree, I hope that in the future our family will have an endless supply of rice, so that my little brother won't go hungry, and my mother won't have to get up in the middle of the night to weave cloth anymore." After saying this, the child tugged at the old woman's clothes and asked, "Grandma, can the old sacred tree hear my wish?"
"My dear child, sincerity is key," the old woman said, patting the child's head.
Tang Feng heard everything clearly from the tree. He figured the girl must be suffering, so he casually broke off a branch full of blossoms from behind him and threw it down to her. The girl looked at the branch at her feet, bent down to pick it up, looked up, and then smiled at the old woman, saying, "Grandma, look! The old tree heard us!" Seeing the little girl happily walk away, Tang Feng leaned back against the tree trunk. Not long after, he heard a sound coming from below again.
"By the divine tree above, I have three wishes, and I hope you will hear them. First, I wish that though Yun is an old country, its destiny may be renewed; second, I wish that generations of people may carry on virtue and repeat the accumulated achievements; third, I wish that the four seas and eight wastelands may be peaceful and the rivers clear, the seas calm, and the people healthy and prosperous."
After listening to the conversation, Tang Feng thought, "Wow! Isn't this a model patriotic and ambitious young man?" He turned and looked down at the man, who was wearing a red mask, dressed in white clothes with gray-purple patterns, and purple gauze sleeves hanging down on both sides. A purple and white sash was tied around his waist. Tang Feng stared at the man for a long time before leisurely changing the subject and saying, "This gentleman has gone to great lengths to say so much, but I feel that if there are no worries on your mind, then every day is a good day."
The man looked up and said with a slight smile, "Looks like there's a gentleman in the tree!"
Tang Feng, with a yam bean dangling from his mouth, arms behind his back, and head resting on his arms, said, "You've asked for so much, don't you want to ask for something for yourself? Like a career, like a better family, like... a better marriage."
The man bowed respectfully and said, "My career is smooth and I need not ask for more; my parents are in good health, and I am already content; as for marriage..." He paused and then added, "I am already engaged, and there's nothing I can do about it."
"Ah! A kindred spirit!" Upon hearing this, Tang Feng felt as if he had met a kindred spirit.
"Brother, what is this...?"
"My family pressured me too much. I tried to resist the marriage, but it was no use; I was beaten several times. I had no choice but to come here to make a wish." After saying this, Tang Feng didn't care whether the person could see him or not, and shook the blessing plaque hanging on his wrist.
The man under the tree smiled. "It seems you're quite a man of character, brother."
"That's..." Perhaps Tang Feng was too excited and boastful, because the yam ball in his mouth, still attached to the skewer, fell down. Tang Feng hurriedly reached for it, but forgot that he was still on the tree trunk. He flipped over, lost his grip, and slid down. The layers of branches below became obstacles, but none of them caught him. Tang Feng closed his eyes in fear, thinking that if he fell face-first, he would be disfigured. However, the pain he imagined did not come. Instead, he fell into a warm chest. Tang Feng slowly opened his tightly closed eyes and found himself hugging the neck of the person who had been talking to him under the tree. The person had one arm around his waist and the other hand holding the yam ball that had fallen. The flowers that Tang Feng had crushed when he fell were also falling from the branches with a gust of wind, swirling around the two of them. Tang Feng was momentarily blinded by the petals and dust in the wind, so he buried his head in his arms. The man patted Tang Feng on the back and said, "Brother, if you have nothing else to do, please come down."
Tang Feng then realized he was still in the other person's arms and quickly got up, saying, "No...sorry! My foot slipped." He tiptoed and pulled the string of yam beans from the other person's hand, then awkwardly said, "I was a little excited just now, I...I wish you success in annuling your engagement soon and finding a good match." With that, he turned and left.
Watching Tang Feng's departing figure, the man stood there, motionless for a long time, until an old woman came over with several servants and asked, "Ziliang, what are you doing! I asked you to come and pray for blessings, what are you daydreaming about!"
It turned out that this man was Zhou Ziliang, the son of Marquis Dingbei, Zhou Wuhai.
Zhou Ziliang snapped out of his reverie upon hearing Madam Zhou's words, smiled faintly, and pulled his mask down slightly. "It's nothing, I just met an interesting person."
Madam Zhou scolded him slightly, "Ah Liang, I'm not trying to be mean, but now that you have Xiao Feng, don't be fickle. Xiao Feng is the daughter-in-law I've chosen. If anyone else comes to my Marquis's mansion, I won't acknowledge them."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Ziliang's originally bright eyes dimmed slightly in the moonlight. He respectfully replied, "Of course, everything... will be as Mother wishes." The lady seemed satisfied with the answer and turned to leave. Before leaving, she specifically instructed him to make a wish for a good marriage between him and Tang Feng before the sacred tree. Zhou Ziliang hurriedly agreed. After seeing his mother's figure disappear into the distance, he picked up his fortune tablet and looked at it. He then remembered that when the young man fell earlier, the fortune tablet was still hanging in his hand, so it must not have been hung up properly. Zhou Ziliang stared at the path that Tang Feng had run back along. His mind was in turmoil, and he couldn't think of any wishes for the moment. He wondered which young lady the young man he had just met would marry and live happily ever after, or which young man would be lucky enough to marry him. But he hoped that the young man could find someone he could spend his life with. He thought that if he couldn't do it himself, perhaps that young master could do it for him. With that thought, Zhou Ziliang turned and put his lucky charm back in his pocket. He then took another lucky charm and wrote on it, "May you find a good match, may the green mountains never grow old and your hair turn white with snow." After writing it, he leaped up, lightly touching the branches with his feet, and easily reached the top of the sacred tree. He gently hung the lucky charm there and said, "If it's truly as you say, then giving you this blessing is not a loss."
Tang Feng, sitting in the carriage, hugged Zhang Mobai, saying, "Little madman, I really messed up today! I just fell into someone's arms."
Zhang Mobai patted Tang Feng on the back to comfort him, "With a mask on, who can know who you are? Just hang up the lucky plaque, it's not a loss."
Hearing this, Tang Feng sat up, looked down, and saw that his sign was still intact on his wrist. He frowned, then lunged back at it, exclaiming, "I didn't even have my sign on! What a loss!"
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